“Moses fled Egypt, and lived in the land of Midian where he married Zipporah, and tended the sheep of his father-in-law. God called to Moses from the midst of a bush and said, “Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharoah, in Egypt that thou mayest bring forth my people, the Children of Israel, out of Egypt.” The Bible.

Characters:-

-Moses.

-Zipporah. Wife of Moses.

ZIPPORAH: Aren’t we going to discuss this, Moses?

MOSES: Zipporah, God said go. I have to go. What is there to discuss?

ZIPPORAH: What about your family?

MOSES: God will provide.

ZIPPORAH: Moses, I did not marry God. God did not father my children.

MOSES: Zipporah, if I had a choice, I would not go. I was born there and lived my first twenty years there. I committed a murder in self defence, and had to flee the country, or be executed. Be careful that you do not oppose God’s will too adamantly.

ZIPPORAH: Moses, you have told me about your misfortune in Egypt. It happened so long ago, even the Pharoah of those times has been dead many years. It seems to me that you are a bit too eager to run back to Egypt, Moses, now that it’s safe.

MOSES: What is that supposed to mean?

ZIPPORAH: It means shouldn’t you be just a little skeptical about a voice in a bush?

MOSES: It was on God’s holy mountain, Zipporah, Mount Horeb.

ZIPPORAH: The devil goes everywhere, Moses. Scripture tells us Satan is allowed to go visit God in heaven. There is certainly nothing special about Mount Horeb. Our family’s sheep have been grazing there for endless generations.

MOSES: What are you saying, Zipporah? That I should wait for God to repeat the order?

ZIPPORAH: Why not? It was his doing in the first place that the Children of Israel be enslaved in Egypt. They've been there four hundred years, at least, Moses. He hasn’t been in too much of a hurry to free them. A few more days won’t make that much of a difference.

MOSES: Zipporah, if you keep this up, it is you who are going to destroy this family. How long do you think God will allow you to oppose his will?

ZIPPORAH: I am not opposing God’s will, Moses. I am asking you, please, to make certain it is God who is talking to you. You served the Gods of Egypt since you were born, Moses. Could it not be them asking you to go back?

MOSES: Yes, Zipporah, I served the Gods of Egypt from birth. And where were they when Pharaoh banished me from Egypt?

ZIPPORAH: Perhaps where the God of Israel was all those centuries his people were enslaved in Egypt. And they, Moses, have been worshipping him longer than you worshipped the Gods of Egypt. For centuries he doesn’t speak to his own people, and suddenly he speaks to you, a total stranger to his ways. Come on, Moses, be reasonable.

MOSES: How long should I wait, Zipporah?

ZIPPORAH: I suggest you wait until God comes up with a messenger larger than a voice in a bush. In the meantime, live happily here with your family.

MOSES: If I stay, your father will not be pleased. He feels honoured that God has spoken to someone in his family.

ZIPPORAH : My father is a business man, Moses. In your going to Egypt, he sees an opportunity for new markets. In my father's commercial eyes, God has very little to do with how important it is you go to Egypt to find new markets.

MOSES: For markets or for God, this family still benefits.

ZIPPORAH: No, Moses. For God, it is dangerous because you go to oppose the Government of Egypt. That has to be bad for my father’s finances. Bad for this family. For markets, you would go to bring back good fortune for your family.

MOSES: Let's compromise, Zipporah. Your father has promised me land, whenever I'm ready to stop working for him. I'll take the land now, and start the farm with you. When it's up and running, I will go to Egypt to do God's will. I will pretend that burning bush never happened. Or just chop it down and feed it to the sheep.

ZIPPORAH: That's a good plan, Moses. I promise you my father and I will make sure you have a prosperous piece of land to come back to. And while you are about God's business in Egypt, be on the lookout for business contacts. Egypt is a land of milk and honey for buying and selling. By the time you return, Moses, we will have a lot to sell to Egypt.

MOSES: With a mind such as yours, Zipporah, God would be better served if he chooses you to go to Egypt. I will definitely suggest that to him when I speak to him next time.

ZIPPORAH: Only if I were a man, Moses. Only if I were a man. To all the gods there are, however brilliant a woman, she counts for less than a man. Your god, Moses, is merely one of many of the same ilk.

MOSES: My god, Zipporah, is your god.

ZIPPORAH: Yes, husband, and so I speak about him with authority greater than yours since I was worshipping him all those years you were growing up in Egypt worshipping the gods of the Pyramids and Sphinxes.

MOSES: And about those other gods you mention of my god’s ilk, do you speak, too, with authority, my loving wife?

ZIPPORAH: With as much authority given to me by the chatter among us wives of marketplace merchants of countless religions. In a marketplace where money is the main language spoken, Moses, the name of Beelzeebub can be currency as valuable as Yahweh, while the indifference with which all gods regard women, Moses, gives a woman a freedom neither men nor gods can fully appreciate. That is why when Lilith, the first wife god created for Adam, abandoned the marriage, neither god nor Adam tried to persuade her to return. Instead, god made certain that Adam’s second wife was created to be genetically inferior to Adam.

MOSES: Careful, Zipporah. With that line of reasoning you could be painting yourself into a corner.

ZIPPORAH: And a happy corner it will be, Moses, because you will be in it with me.
 
                                                                                                                                               ~The End~